As I see it, there's roughly 4 kinds of 'quests' that make sense to exist on Atys. All of which are needed, and all of which are already in the game, but all need to be expanded upon in some way.
Tasks:
Firstly, there's the menial chores. The work that's necesary on a daily basis to keep society going. Tasks like "kill some gingos so they don't eat all the yubos", "kill some yubos so they don't eat all the plants", "harvest some plants so we can feed our yubos", etcetera. These tasks are necessarily simple and repetitive, and can't have any direct effect on the world. So yes, they'll be relatively boring, but it's the only way it makes sense to have hundreds of players doing them again and again.
Rewards:
The rewards should similarly be simple and repetitive. Currently it's just dapper and fame. Other possibilities could include flowers, eggs, sap crystals, exp catalyzers.... Basicly anything that players use up by the hundreds.
Necessary improvements:
A huge amount of polishing is really all that's needed. These tasks are already given by hundreds of NPCs, but unfortunally the vast majority of them is mostly useless. A fight task shouldn't ask for creatures that don't exist. A crafting task shouldn't ask for items from 5 different crafting trees (unless it's a group task and rewards accordingly). And please give us tracking stanzas for missions materials or let the foraging tasks ask for normal materials.
Utopian scenario:
The one thing I can think of to make these missions more interesting, while keeping them sensible, is to have them slowly effect the world. If enough tasks to kill gingos in Majestic Garden are completed, the gingos disappear from Majestic Garden for a while. But if nobody completes the tasks, more and more gingos appear in Majestic Garden, and the reward for the task goes up. Similarly, if nobody completes any tasks to craft Fyros clothes, more and more NPCs in Pyr start walking around naked.
Rites:
Secondly, there's the rites. Those revolve around homins learning something or proving themselves, not necessarily doing something usefull. So not just "kill X kinchers", but rather "kill X kinchers within Y minutes" or "kill a kincher in single combat, with a dagger" or "kill one of the rare striped kinchers that only live in Highgrove". Rites allow for more unique and interesting quests with more backstory and more meaningfull rewards, but ofcourse they still can't have or even pretend to have any direct effect on the world.
Rewards:
Rewards for rites should be small, but unique. The current rite rewards are all good examples: Some are more usefull than others, but none of them make a huge difference and all of them can only be obtained by doing the rite. Titles make excellent rewards too. It doesn't matter if not all rite rewards are usefull; a lot of players will want it just because it's something new and different.
Necessary improvements:
We need more of them! Enough said.
Utopian scenario:
If we actually do get 200 more rites, I think the rite/fame system would need to be changed as well. Having the rites spread out over all the civilisations and tribes, under the current system, would encourage constantly changing your allegiance to get them all. Ideally I'd like to see most of the rites not having fame requirements above 50, and the few rites that do require higher fame to have rewards that you loose again if your fame with the ritegiver drops too low.
Mini-events:
Thirdly, there's the mini-events as Sasi mentioned. Therein an event manager takes the role of some homin, goes into town and asks the homins present to help them with something. These kinds of quests can be more of the classic "save my son who's been captured by bandits" type, since they'll only be completed once by a single group of players. They shouldn't be of "save the town" epic-level though, as I'd expect more massive consequences from such events. Mini-events can be either announced or spontaneous, and could probably be done on a weekly basis without too much planning or preparation.
Rewards:
There could be somewhat substantial rewards for the players helping out, depending on the 'NPC' that's asking for help ofcourse. (If it's a poor commoner who's son has been kidnapped, not much chance they can afford to pay you.
) Rare mats would be okay here, as would things like fireworks. There shouldn't be any unique rewards, as that wouldn't be much fun for all the players who missed it.Necessary improvements:
The event managers need more powers to affect the world (or if they already have them, they need to use them more). We've had no lack of these events, and for the most part I think the event managers have done them quite well. But what I found lacking was that there was rarely anything that normal players without any GM-powers couldn't have done. A mini-event about a Matis citizen asking for help to take out the Avalae Charmers becomes much more interesting if the Matis citizen is an already-existing NPC, and the number of Avalae Charmers has been multiplied a dozenfold for the occasion.
Utopian scenario:
Ideally I'd like these mini-events to have some small permanent effect on the world. In the above example of wiping out the Avalae Charmers, the event could make them permanently relocate their camp. For events where no such direct logical consequence can be thought of, they could simply add an NPC or a memorial stone to commemorate the event. Nothing epic, just so the participating players can say "I was there when...".
Epic events:
And then lastly, there's the epic events. The stuff of legends, the events that threaten entire cities and shake the foundations of the New Lands. Events like that should last for several days and allow for every homin on Atys to participate. They also should have global consequences for both succes and failure. They're the only times when homins should be heralded as "saviours of the realm". The only examples of this kind of event that I've seen have been the Episode 2 templebuilding and the Halloween kitin invasion.
Rewards:
This should be the only type of quest that can give out both substantial and unique rewards. Anything goes as long as it doesn't make a crafting tree useless.
Necessary improvements:
Again, we really just need more of them.
Utopian scenario:
Ah, where to begin? There's been soooo many good suggestions for large-scale events that I would all love to see. As most important aspect though, I'm still going for the effect on the world. These events need to have some significant and lasting consequences, something like the creation/destruction of a town or outpost or resource field. A good example was the event that created the portal between the desert and the jungle.
In my opinion, all of the above have their pros and cons, and all have their place on Atys.
Ofcourse, a problem with any type of quest is that it has to be possible within existing game-mechanics. No quest will ever be something truly fresh and original, unless it comes with it's own new game-mechanic, and that dramaticly increases the time it takes to implement it. So if we want lots of quests right now, we're going to have to accept that all of those quests will consist entirely of activities that "I could do without taking the quest too!".
I like the idea of making fame more dynamic. But instead of having fame decrease over time, which I can see having some unpleasant side effects, I'd like to propose that either:h0lycha0 wrote:I wouldn't mind if my fame fell at a given rate over in game time, causing me to show love for my deity or suffer the consequences.
Fame slowly goes back to 0 over time, whether it's positive or negative. This represents that your deeds towards the faction, good and bad, are slowly forgotten.
OR
Some actions cost a little bit of fame to perform. IE: Buying a karavan pact in the PR costs some Karavan fame.